Battle of Bennington

New Hampshire had hardly been idle since the fall of Fort Ticonderoga and the ominous advance of Burgoyne’s army. With the pledge of John Langdon, the wealthy speaker of the New Hampshire legislature, to offer his fortune and credit to the state, authorization was given to raise a brigade of militia. To command it, Langdon nominated local hero John Stark.

A veteran of Robert Rogers’ Rangers during the French and Indian War, Stark had been a colonel in the Continental Army and had seen action at Bunker Hill, Montreal and Trenton. When he was passed up for promotion, however, he resigned his commission and walked away. Back on his farm, he still burned with patriotic fervor, and when called by the legislature he responded eagerly — with one proviso: His command would be independent of the Continental Army and Congress. His terms were met, and his commission as a brigadier general was signed on July 17. With that, Hezekiah Hutchins, a state delegate from Concord, immediately departed for his hometown and rode all night, arriving on Sunday. Bursting into the meetinghouse, he gave the news, after which all the men got up and followed him out. On Monday Captain Hutchins had a complete company outfitted and on the way to meet Stark. By the end of the first week, Stark had 1,492 officers and men — 10 percent of New Hampshire’s registered voters — under arms.

Without waiting for all of his militiamen to assemble, Stark started groups of 100 off for Manchester, where Warner was waiting. Arriving on August 9, Stark intended to waste no time before finding and harassing Burgoyne’s army. A temporary hurdle was waiting for him, however, in the overweight form of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, sent there by Schuyler with orders to dispatch all available men to him. Lincoln’s higher rank did not impress Stark, who waved his commission under the Continental general’s nose and told him that his only loyalty was to the people of New Hampshire. Rather than challenge Stark, Lincoln wisely agreed to his plan to harass Burgoyne’s left flank. While Stark moved on to Bennington, Lincoln rode back to Schuyler and convinced him to follow Stark’s strategy. ‘Seldom has such rank insubordination produced such excellent results,’ a historian later wrote of the incident, which chanced to place Stark and his brigade at the right place at the right time to perform highly beneficial service to the Patriot cause.

Meanwhile, after resting his men for two days, Baum covered the next 16 miles in 12 hours and surprised a detachment of militia at the small Vermont town of Cambridge, where he captured eight of them, as well as a handful of carts and wagons. He was too late to stop the Mohawks from killing or driving off the few horses in the vicinity, but information gleaned from his prisoners confirmed that there was a rich store of supplies in Bennington. However, it was now guarded by some 1,500 men. Undaunted, Baum sent a message back to Burgoyne telling him of his determination to press forward. Later that day, Stark received news of marauding Indians in the Cambridge area and dispatched about 200 men there to scout them out.The next morning, August 14, Baum crossed the watershed between the Battenkill and Hoosic rivers and reached Sancoick’s Mill. There, he encountered Stark’s detachment, which fired a volley at his troops from the forest before pulling back. The Americans’ retirement was made easier by Eleazer Eggerton and two friends, residents of Bennington, who stayed behind under fire to demolish St. Luke’s Bridge over Little White Creek. That afforded the scouts time to fall back two miles to meet Stark and the rest of his volunteers at a ford on the Walloomsac. Upon learning that Baum’s regulars were coming up behind the Indians, Stark immediately sent word back for Warner in Manchester to bring up his men.

Baum, his confidence rising with the Americans’ retreat and word from more prisoners confirming Stark’s presence in Bennington, informed Burgoyne of his intention to strike the rebel force early the next morning. By early afternoon the bridge had been repaired and Baum’s troops streamed across to pursue Stark’s detached rear guard. At that point, however, the two main forces came in sight of one another at the Walloomsac. Stark quickly deployed his men, but battle was postponed when Baum inexplicably decided to take up a defensive position. The frustrated New Englanders were forced to watch as the Germans and British settled down atop a hill centered on Walloomsac Farm. After some late-day skirmishing in which the Americans claimed more than 30 enemy dead, Stark pulled his men back about a mile or so to camp for the night. Both commanders laid plans for the next day’s action, which would highlight their different tactical philosophies.

August 15 was marked by a heavy downpour. With combat again postponed, Stark refined his plans. On the night of the 14th, Baum had stationed about 150 men on the far side of St. Luke’s Bridge, apparently holding it for some offensive use. The growing number of rebels in the surrounding forest seems to have given him second thoughts, however, and that night he sent Burgoyne a note requesting reinforcements. In addition to the Tories Baum had placed on the south side of the shallow Walloomsac, the north side of the bridge was guarded by half of his Brunswick infantry and some of Captain Fraser’s Canadians, with one of the 3-pounder cannons. A smaller hill rose about a half mile to the southeast, where more of Fraser’s men struggled in the mud and rain to dig trenches and build a breastwork of fallen trees — too far away from the men holding the bridge to give them any real support. More Tories and Canadians occupied a scattering of cabins along the hillside.

At the top of the hill Baum situated his main defensive works, later called the Dragoon Redoubt by the Americans. There, behind more trenches and log breastworks prepared throughout the rainy 15th, were more than 200 dragoons and British marksmen, supported by the other cannons. Fifty Jgers were positioned farther down along the river, covering the bridge but out of sight of the main redoubt. More than 50 German infantry and Tories were in the open along the road leading back to Sancoick’s Mill. Finally, all the Indians were placed on a plateau in the rear under the doubtful command of La Corne de St. Luc, ostensibly protecting Baum’s flanks. Broken up into such small units and scattered over nearly a square mile, Baum’s 800 men were in the worst possible position to mount an effective defense or lend each other mutual support and communication.

In contrast, Stark’s plans were a model of recklessness designed to take advantage of Baum’s caution with a force now grown to almost 2,000 men. As soon as dawn broke on the 16th, Colonel Moses Nichols would lead a detachment of New Hampshire volunteers three miles to the right to hit the Dragoon Redoubt in the flank. At the same time, Colonel Samuel Herrick would take his 300 Bennington militia and Vermont Grangers to the left, cutting the Cambridge road and flanking the redoubt from that quarter. Finally, Stark’s center would consist of Colonel David Hobart on the left and Colonel Thomas Stickney on the right, each with 200 men at his disposal, and a central force of 100 men to strike the Tories at the bridge. Stark and his men would wait behind the front until Herrick and Nichols opened the action and Stickney and Hobart distracted the enemy front. He then would lead the main attack across the Walloomsac, up the hill and into the Dragoon Redoubt. It was an ambitious plan, but one that would be aided by Baum’s mismanagement of his resources and not a little luck.

Meanwhile, Burgoyne had received Baum’s request for help on the 15th, and dispatched a 650-man Brunswick advance corps under Lt. Col. Friedrich Breymann. The overdressed Germans had left for Bennington early that morning, making a brave effort to cover the 25-mile distance through the pouring rain. At the same time, Warner had received Stark’s appeal to hurry his men on to the Walloomsac. Because of other patrolling duties he could not get them assembled quickly, and once they got underway the rain slowed the Vermonters as much as it did the Braunschweigers. Hastening ahead of his troops, Warner managed to join Stark in time to take part in the following day’s action.